1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to sheetlike elements assembled parallel to an existing floor and spaced therefrom, and more specifically to extruded metal floorboards with integrated long and short legs that space the floorboards from the walls.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 9,765,980, issued to Holtz et al., discloses a modular, self-contained, mobile clean room. About the size of a modular building, it is able to be transported by semitrailer, railcar, or cargo aircraft. Unlike non-modular buildings, such clean rooms often employ lightweight construction, modular facilities can use aluminum frames with steel and aluminum panels, both inside and out. They often lack drywall that is porous and can be drilled into and re-filled.
Multiple such clean rooms can be set together in warehouses or other gray space buildings. The building provides electricity, chilled and hot water, HVAC (heating ventilation, and air conditioning), clean gases, drainage hookups, and communications wiring. Besides their use as analysis laboratories, the mobile clean rooms are a relatively quick way to support the manufacture of biopharmaceutical bulk biologics. Some clean rooms are certifiable to Class 10,000 air purity.
The modular clean rooms are large, having their own dedicated maintenance rooms at one end in which the utilities are monitored and/or filtered. Ductwork, plumbing, pressurized gas pipes, and electrical conduit runs from the maintenance rooms through the walls, above the ceiling, and underneath the floors to where they are needed within the clean room area.
Housed inside the clean rooms are often heavy, often bulky, laboratory and manufacturing equipment. For example, a clean room may contain a centrifuge, tissue culture hood, chemical handling unit, stirrer tank, chromatography column, cell sorter, bioreactor, refrigerator, freezer, incubator, biosafety cabinet, temperature cycler, vacuum, or freeze dryer. Some equipment within the clean rooms is on heavy duty casters so that it may be repositioned to a new station or otherwise transported by rolling on the floor. Moving the entire modular clean room is another matter.
Air bearings that can lift the modular clean room on a warehouse floor are set at its four corners and edges. The air bearings are each about 45 centimeters (cm) (18 inches) in diameter and under 6.2 cm (2.4375 inches) tall. There is very little room to install them under the clean rooms, as space underneath the floors is at a premium.
There is a need in the art for improved flooring in modular clean rooms that is less expensive, lighter, and offers more room for components within the floors.